Managing Your Talents [4] - Input

According to Gallup, the essence of the talent theme of Input is the following:

“You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information — words, facts, books, and quotations — or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather, to add more information to your archives. If you like to travel, it is because each new location offers novel artifacts and facts. These can be acquired and then stored away. Why are they worth storing? At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful? With all those possible uses in mind, you really don’t feel comfortable throwing anything away. So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away. It’s interesting. It keeps your mind fresh. And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable."

But a talent on itself is quite meaningless unless you develop and manage it. That is why we believe that "a well managed talent becomes a strength, but a mismanaged talent becomes a detriment".

How do you manage the talent of Input?

The Talent Theme of Input is one of the so called "Thinking" Themes.  Input is not merely the mental activity of thinking or inquiring information.  Yes, someone with Input is very inquisitive by nature.  But Input leads to the activity of gathering information, stories or knowledge - and most often in a very real sense.  This is also why people with Input tends to collect things - physical things. They are collectors.  But never collecting just for the sake of collecting. They collect things because it represents a place, an idea, a story. And it important to them to have that link.
But, something very important about the Input Talent Theme, is that it is in most cases not gathering and collecting for their own sake.  They love to share the information, the ideas, the stories.  This is also why people with Input is seen as great resource of information, and great researchers.  The always have something stored that could be of use - be it an object or information.  Personally I have Input in my Top 5, and I collect information in the form of ideas (knowledge), books and documents and files on my computer.  I never delete a file or an email, never throw a book away, always have a link to a useful website.  My friends and colleagues knows this, and love to borrow my books, or have me give them useful information on something.  And I love to share it!

Also keep in mind that most Input people (obviously it depends on their Talent mix) are specialists.  They won't collect or research just for the sake of interest, but they have very specific interest fields.  This is why they usually becomes specialists in their field.

All of the above needs management.  The first rather obvious mismanagement of the Input talent is hoarding.  Keeping to much stuff because you just cannot let go.  This is often a problem when you gather up physical stuff.  This needs to be managed well, as it could seriously become a burden, especially to those around you. 


How?

Don't hoard.  I know, it's not that simple, but you should have some kind of inner system and value that warns you when you are becoming obsessive with keeping stuff.  Usually this is not an issue with information on a computer, but something like books, magazines or tools can seriously take over your living space!  Also listen to the people close to you ( a wife, husband or partner that understands Input is usually a good guide) to tell you when you are overdoing the gathering.  Have a specific project where you go through your things to see what you can give away, and what you can throw away or delete.  Bite your lip.  It is possible.

Secondly, you must realize that the Input talent, pretty much like any other Talent Theme, can "suck you in".  It can become an obsession.  Something like research on the Internet can easily take up hours of your time without you noticing.  Very useful when you have the time, but often you don't.  Input can cause you to "over-research" or just keep on adding more and more without ever getting satisfied.  You should manage your time.


How?

Develop the discipline to manage your time.  Set a timer or an alarm if you need to.  Also understand that what you see as enough usually way more exceeds what others can absorb.  I see that when I give people books to read.  Their eyes will widen when i come from my study with 6 or 7 books I like to lend them.  They can hardly absorb reading one.  Also, when I research for teaching or a course, I discipline myself to scale it down with as much as 40% to even 60%, as experience has taught me that people can only absorb so much information and new ideas.
If you are a collector, you must have the self-knowledge to understand that others might not really be interested in where you bought every one of your sugar spoons.  Two or three stories might be enough (unless they really show interest - go for it).  Your Input makes you a specialist.  Be careful not to become so specialized that you are of little use to others.  But, as long as you add value, keep it up!

How do you manage your Input talent?  Let me know!

- by Dries Lombaard, founder and owner of Africanmosaic and TALENTmosaic.

Important note when reading this:  in this series, I simply focus on the specific talent in isolation.  I do not take the crucial element of Talent Dynamics (two or more talent themes combining) into consideration.  This  is very important as any Coach should take that into consideration when coaching people in their talents. But you need to understand the challenges that the talent theme on its own might hold.  Therefor the challenges in managing the talent as explained below might not be applicable to everyone, as the dynamics with some of their other talent themes might override the specific challenge and "make up for it".  But, knowledge of the most common management challenges in every talent theme still is crucial in talent development and when turning the talent into a strength.

Visit our websites:  

www.africanmosaic.com and www.talentmosaic.net